Page 98 - Advanced Apologetics and World Views Revised

hid. But when they saw the risen Lord, they knew that all Jesus had said and done proved that He was
indeed God in flesh. No other religious leader has died in full view of trained executioners, had a
guarded tomb, and then rose three days later to appear to many people. The resurrection is proof of
who Jesus is and that He did accomplish what He set out to do: provide the only means of redemption
for mankind. Buddha did not rise from the dead. Muhammad did not rise from the dead. Confucius did
not rise from the dead. Krishna did not rise from the dead. Only Jesus has physically risen from the dead,
walked on water, claimed to be God, and raised others from the dead. He has conquered death. Only in
Christianity do we have the person of Christ who claimed to be God, performed many miracles to prove
His claim of divinity, died and rose from the dead, and claimed that He alone is “the way the truth and
the life” (John 14:6) and that no one comes to the Father except through Him

Are there not many ways to God? Don’t all
religions lead to God? lxvii

The existence of so many religions and the claim that all
religions lead to God without question confuses many who
are earnestly seeking the truth about God, with the result
sometimes being that some despair of ever reaching the
absolute truth on the subject. Or they end up embracing the Universalist claim that all religions lead to
God. Of course, skeptics also point to the existence of so many religions as proof that either you cannot
know God or that God simply does not exist.

Romans 1:19-21 contains the biblical explanation for why there are so many religions. The truth of God
is seen and known by every human being because God has made it so. Instead of accepting the truth
about God and submitting to it, most human beings reject it and seek their own way to understand God.
But this leads not to enlightenment regarding God, but to futility of thinking. Here is where we find the
basis of the “many religions.”

Many people do not want to believe in a God who demands righteousness and morality, so they invent a
God who makes no such requirements. Many people do not want to believe in a God who declares it
impossible for people to earn their own way to heaven. So they invent a God who accepts people into
heaven if they have completed certain steps, followed certain rules, and/or obeyed certain laws, at least
to the best of their ability. Many people do not want a relationship with a God who is sovereign and
omnipotent. So they imagine God as being more of a mystical force than a personal and sovereign ruler.

The existence of so many religions is not an argument against God's existence or an argument that truth
about God is not clear. Rather, the existence of so many religions is demonstration of humanity's
rejection of the one true God. Mankind has replaced Him with gods that are more to their liking. This is a
dangerous enterprise. The desire to recreate God in our own image comes from the sin nature within
us—a nature that will eventually “reap destruction” (Galatians 6:7-8).

Do all religions lead to God? No. All people—religious or otherwise—will stand before God someday
(Hebrews 9:27), but religious affiliation is not what determines your eternal destiny. Only faith in Jesus
Christ will save. “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have
life” (1 John 5:12). It’s as simple as that. Only Christianity—faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus
Christ—leads to God’s forgiveness and eternal life. No one comes to the Father except through the Son

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